Breaking News : Rice Urges Pakistan to cooperate with Mumbai massacre probe!

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Rice: Pakistan must cooperate in terror probe !

By ANNE GEARAN, AP Military Writer Anne Gearan, Ap Military Writer
2 mins ago

LONDON – The United States has told Pakistan it expects nothing short of complete cooperation in investigations into the terrorist rampage in nuclear rival India, and Pakistan's response will be a test of the will of the new civilian government, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Monday.

"What we are emphasizing to the Pakistani government is the need to follow the evidence wherever it leads," Rice said. "I don't want to jump to any conclusions myself on this, but I do think that this is a time for complete, absolute, total transparency and cooperation and that's what we expect."

At President George W. Bush's direction, Rice is cutting short a European trip to visit India later this week. Attacks spanning three days killed more than 170 people in the Indian commercial capital Mumbai, including six Americans.

Indian leaders pointed fingers at "elements in Pakistan" although it is not yet clear where the well-planned operation originated.

"We share the grief and the anger of the Indian people but of course Americans were also killed in this attack and they were killed deliberately because they were Americans," Rice said during a press conference aboard her plane en route to London. "That makes this of special interest and concern to the United States."

Attackers chose sites representing the city's wealth and tourism, and reportedly sought out Westerners as victims. Rice will see Indian leaders in New Delhi. She does not plan to go to Mumbai.

A previously unknown Muslim group called Deccan Mujahideen — a name suggesting origins inside India — has claimed responsibility for the attacks. But Indian officials said the lone surviving gunman, now in custody, told authorities he belonged to a Pakistani militant group with links to the divided Himalayan territory of Kashmir.

India has blamed "elements" from Pakistan for the 60-hour siege during which suspected Muslim militants hit 10 sites across Mumbai. Pakistan denied it was involved and demanded evidence.

India has repeatedly accused Pakistan of complicity in terrorist attacks on its soil, many of which it traces to militant groups fighting Indian rule in Kashmir. The U.S. has tried to persuade Pakistan to shift its security focus from India, with which it has fought three wars, to Islamic militants along the Afghan border.

The Mumbai assaults raised fears among U.S officials of renewed violence between India and Pakistan. Both nations possess nuclear arms.

Rice said Pakistan's U.S-backed civilian president, Asif Ale Zardari, has pledged to improve relations.

Zardari replaced President Pervez Musharraf earlier this year and has established polite but distanced relations with Washington. Musharraf was a military man and a Bush administration ally against terrorism, but that closeness cost him support at home.

"It's a difficult task for this new Pakistani government," Rice said, referring to the way Islamabad will respond to the attacks next door. "They know this is a time to step up to the task."

Rice spoke Sunday with President-elect Barack Obama, their third conversation about India in as many days.

Obama was expected to announce his pick to replace Rice as the top U.S diplomat later Monday. Democratic officials said Sunday that Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton would be named.

Rice is to go to India on Wednesday.

The White House announced Rice's trip Sunday, hours after Bush assured India's leader the U.S. government will put it's full weight behind the investigation.

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Print Story: Rice: Pakistan must cooperate in terror probe - Yahoo! News

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Rice urges Pakistan to cooperate in Mumbai inquiry

By Sue Pleming Sue Pleming
17 mins ago

LONDON (Reuters) – U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Monday urged Pakistan to give its "absolute, total" cooperation in finding those responsible for last week's attacks on India's financial capital Mumbai.

Rice, who is due in India on Wednesday to try and lower tensions with its rival Pakistan, said the United States made clear to Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardari there must be complete transparency in the investigation into the Mumbai attacks that killed nearly 200 people, including six Americans.

"What we are emphasizing to the Pakistani government is the need to follow the evidence wherever it leads and to do that in the most committed and firmest possible way," she told reporters traveling with her to London, where she will discuss India-Pakistan tensions with Britain's foreign minister.

Indian officials have said the Islamist militants who went on the rampage in Mumbai for three days were from an anti-India group based in Pakistan, a Muslim nation carved out of Hindu-majority India in 1947.

"I don't want to jump to any conclusions myself on this but I do think that this is a time for complete, absolute, total transparency and cooperation and that is what we expect (from Pakistan)," Rice added.

Zardari, whose wife Benazir Bhutto was assassinated by Islamist militants last year, has vowed to crack down if given proof but has urged India not to punish his country for the Mumbai attacks, saying militants have the power to precipitate a war in the region.

Rice said there needed to be the "highest levels" of cooperation by law enforcement and intelligence agencies from both countries.

Rice will drop at least two stops -- Rome and Helsinki -- from a European tour this week and visit New Delhi instead, aiming to ease growing antagonism between two nuclear-armed nations who have fought three wars since 1947.

Asked whether she was concerned these latest tensions could lead to a full-blown conflict, Rice played down the risk.

"This is a different relationship than it was a number of years ago. Obviously they share a common enemy because extremists in any form are a threat to the Pakistanis as well as the Indians," she said.

DIFFICULT TASK AHEAD

But she conceded a difficult task lay ahead for the new civilian government in Pakistan, which has threatened to move troops from its western border with Afghanistan to the Indian frontier if tensions escalated.

"But in speaking to President Zardari and in speaking to the (Pakistani) foreign minister they know that this is a time to step up to the task that they have got."

Some experts say the singling out by the attackers of foreigners in Mumbai, especially Britons and Americans, could be a dangerous emerging trend in international terrorism and Rice said Washington was watching this closely.

"This terrorism threat has been very deep and growing for a long time. We have made a lot of progress against these organizations but yes I do think that this is an element that bears watching and that gives us ... more reason to make sure that we get to the bottom of it and as quickly as possible."

Rice said while bodies were still being identified from the Mumbai attacks, she believed all "known" Americans were accounted for.

"We share the grief and the anger of the Indian people," said Rice. "Americans were also killed in this attack and they were killed deliberately because they were Americans. That makes this of special interest and concern ... to the United States."

Rice will be in Brussels on Tuesday for a meeting of NATO foreign ministers and then moves on to New Delhi, after which U.S. officials said she still planned to make a scheduled stop in Copenhagen to meet Danish officials.

(Reporting by Sue Pleming, editing by Kate Kelland)

Print Story: Rice urges Pakistan to cooperate in Mumbai inquiry - Yahoo! News

[genmirajborgza786]

from CNN
Rice: Pakistan must cooperate in terror probe
Story Highlights
U.S. tells Pakistan to cooperate in finding perpetrators of Mumbai attacks

Attacks that killed 179 people have strained India-Pakistan relations

Indian official's offer to step down follows resignation of home minister

Suspect says he is from Pakistan, Indian authorities say
(CNN) -- U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has told Pakistan it expects complete cooperation in finding the perpetrators of the Mumbai attacks in neighboring India.

"What we are emphasizing to the Pakistani government is the need to follow the evidence wherever it leads," Rice told reporters traveling with her to London.

"I don't want to jump to any conclusions myself on this, but I do think that this is a time for complete, absolute, total transparency and cooperation and that's what we expect."

President George W. Bush ordered Rice to cut short her tour of European capitals this week to visit India after attacks spanning three days killed 179 people in the Indian commercial capital Mumbai.

The attacks have strained India's already tenuous relationship with Pakistan, which says India has yet to offer any proof to support allegations that a Pakistani-based Islamic militant group was behind the massacre.

One captured suspect has told police that he is Pakistani, Indian officials said. Sources told CNN's sister station, CNN-IBN, that the captive has said he was trained by Lashkar-e-Tayyiba, a Pakistan-based terror group allied with al Qaeda.

The suspect also said he and his fellow attackers were told to memorize Google Earth maps of Mumbai's streets so they could find their targets, CNN-IBN reported. Watch how investigators are focusing on the suspect »

But Rehman Malik, head of Pakistan's Interior Ministry, told CNN: "So far what has been shown has been unjust.

"If anybody has used our soil, I give assurance and I assure my friends and people from India that we will take action," Malik said.

In Washington, Pakistan's ambassador to the United States said the attacks could be a chance to improve cooperation and ease "the burden of history" between the longtime South Asian rivals, who have fought three major wars since independence and conducted tit-for-tat nuclear weapons tests in 1998.

"It's important to avoid miscalculations. It's important not to ratchet up tensions. It is important to understand that this is an opportunity for India and Pakistan to work together," Ambassador Husain Haqqani told CNN's "Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer" on Sunday.

Police in Mumbai, located in Maharashtra state, on Monday revised downward the death toll from Wednesday's attacks and the sieges that followed to 179 dead and about 300 wounded.

At least 28 foreigners were among the victims, including six Americans and eight Israelis. Victims share their tales of survival and escape »

The official death toll does not include at least nine gunmen killed in three days of battles with police and the Indian military, police said Monday.

A second Indian official offered his resignation Monday in the wake of the attacks. Vilasrao Deshmukh, chief minister of the state of Maharashtra where Mumbai is located, said he would leave it up to his ruling Congress party to decide whether his resignation would be accepted.

His announcement followed Sunday's resignation of federal Home Minister Shivraj Patil, who quit amid criticism of the response to the attacks.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh accepted the resignation of Patil, the home minister, and named Finance Minister P. Chidambaram to take over the post.

Indian officials allege that in the 1990s, Lashkar-e-Tayyiba was a state-sponsored terror group used by the Pakistani government to get control of the disputed northern Kashmir region. Pakistan banned the group in 2002, after an attack on India's parliament that brought the two countries to the brink of war.

The Indian government is considering suspending the five-year old cease-fire with Pakistan and perhaps even ending the dialogue process with the country, CNN-IBN reported.

Pakistani security officials also told CNN that if tensions with India escalate, it may shift its military forces from the Afghan border east to prepare for any conflict.

Pakistan's new democratic government, which took office earlier this year, is battling its own insurgency along the rugged border with Afghanistan, where U.S. and NATO troops have been fighting al Qaeda and Taliban militants since al Qaeda's 2001 attacks on New York and Washington.

Haqqani said the militants want India and Pakistan to remain "at each other's throats so they can flourish," but he said his government has seen no sign of an Indian buildup along the border.

Interpol had said it would send a delegation to India to aid in the investigation. But on Sunday, the international law enforcement agency was still waiting official permission into the country, a spokesman said.

The targets of the attacks included luxury hotels packed with foreign tourists. The 105-year-old Taj Mahal hotel was the site of the attackers' final stand, as gunmen held hostages and refused to leave the facility. Watch the destruction left at the hotel »

CNN's Nic Robertson, Andrew Stevens, Mallika Kapur, Harmeet Shah Singh, Saeed Ahmed, Sara Sidner, Alessio Vinci, Reza Sayah and Paula Newton contributed to this report.

All AboutIndia • Pakistan • Mumbai • Terrorism
Find this article at:
Rice: Pakistan must cooperate in terror probe - CNN.com

[genmirajborgza786]

India warns of 'grave setback' to Pakistan ties !
by Salil Panchal Salil Panchal
11 mins ago

MUMBAI (AFP) – India warned Monday that the Mumbai attacks had dealt a "grave setback" to relations with Pakistan, as the United States urged Islamabad to show "absolute" cooperation with India's probe into the assault.

"What has happened is a grave setback to the process of normalisation of relations and the confidence-building measures with Pakistan," Minister of State for External Affairs Anand Sharma told AFP.

Sharma said the Islamist gunmen who launched their devastating attack on India's financial capital on Wednesday evening were "all from Pakistan" and stressed that it was time Islamabad delivered on its promise to prevent Pakistani soil being used for attacks on India.

India and Pakistan, both armed with nuclear weapons, have fought three wars and were on the brink of a fourth over a 2001 militant assault on the Indian parliament.

Pakistan has denied any involvement in the latest bloodshed which left more than 170 dead and threatens to derail a slow-moving peace process launched in 2004. Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari has urged India not to "over-react."

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who is due to visit India on Wednesday, said it was crucial that Pakistan be seen to fully cooperate with the Indian investigation.

"I don't want to jump to any conclusions myself on this but I do think that this is the time for a complete, absolute, total transparency and cooperation and that is what we expect," she told reporters accompanying her on a trip to Europe.

"What we are emphasising to the Pakistani government is the need to follow the evidence wherever it leads and to do so in the most committed and firmest possible way," she said.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh said Monday he had offered to resign amid widespread public anger over perceived intelligence and security failings that contributed to the bloodshed.

"If the responsibility of the attacks is on the chief minister, then I will go," Deshmukh told reporters. His deputy, R.R. Patil, had stepped down earlier in the day.

The most high-profile political casualty has been Interior Minister Shivraj Patil who resigned on Sunday after "owning moral responsibility" and has been replaced.

India's powerful national security adviser offered to quit but will likely stay put.

With a sense of normality only slowly returning to Mumbai, the focus has turned to who might be responsible for the brazen grenade and gun assault on two luxury hotels, a hospital, a railway station, a Jewish centre and other sites.

Indian government sources said New Delhi was almost totally convinced that the attack was carried out by Pakistan-based militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba, with assistance from sections within Pakistan's powerful spy service.

Lashkar, which has been battling Indian troops in Kashmir, was banned by Pakistan in 2002 -- but the Indian sources said that ban has never been enforced.

Pakistan has repeatedly underlined that it is fighting its own battle against Islamist insurgents, who have taken their bloody campaign to the heart of the Pakistan capital, and stressed the two nations have a common enemy.

"Even if the militants are linked to Lashkar-e-Taiba, who do you think we are fighting?" Zardari told Monday's Financial Times, noting that Pakistan was battling a welter of militant groups along its border with Afghanistan.

At least 172 people were killed and almost 300 were wounded in the 60-hour assault in Mumbai. A Jewish centre was among the targets, and eyewitnesses said some attackers singled out Britons and Americans.

Tension between India and Pakistan date to the post-independence partition of India in 1947 that created the Islamic state of Pakistan and led to horrific bloodletting between Muslims and Hindus.

India has also had its share of homegrown unrest, from Muslims to Maoists to Hindu extremists, and Indian officials have repeatedly declined to blame Pakistan directly for the Mumbai attacks.

"We have had terrorist attacks before... but this attack was different," Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on Sunday. "They came with the explicit aim of killing large numbers of innocent civilians, including foreign visitors."

[genmirajborgza786]

holy sh#t things are getting dangerously ugly firstly Pakistan needs to get rid of this mr. good for nothing 10% & gang and needs a strong leadership with excellent diplomatic maneuvering to handle this critical period.

[genmirajborgza786]

Mumbai attacks probed as India-Pakistan relations strained
Story Highlights
NEW: Official's offer to step down follows resignation of home minister

Suspect says he is from Pakistan, Indian authorities say

Report: India considering suspending five-year-old cease-fire with Pakistan

179 killed, about 300 wounded during attacks, according to federal officials

MUMBAI, India (CNN) -- A second Indian official offered his resignation Monday in the wake of last week's deadly terrorist attacks as Pakistan urged its nuclear neighbor to withhold blame until further investigation.

Vilasrao Deshmukh, chief minister of the state of Maharashtra where Mumbai is located, said he would leave it up to his ruling Congress party to decide whether his resignation would be accepted.

His announcement followed Sunday's resignation of federal Home Minister Shivraj Patil, who quit amid criticism of the response to Wednesday's attacks that left 179 dead.

The attacks have damaged India's already strained relationship with Pakistan, which says India has yet to offer any proof to support allegations that a Pakistani-based Islamic militant group was behind the massacre.

One captured suspect has told police that he is Pakistani, Indian officials said. Sources told CNN's sister station, CNN-IBN, that the captive has said he was trained by Lashkar-e-Tayyiba, a Pakistan-based terror group allied with al Qaeda.

The suspect also said he and his fellow attackers were told to memorize Google Earth maps of Mumbai's streets so they could find their targets, CNN-IBN reported. Watch how investigators are focusing on the suspect »

But Rehman Malik, head of Pakistan's Interior Ministry, told CNN, "So far what has been shown has been unjust."

"If anybody has used our soil, I give assurance and I assure my friends and people from India that we will take action," Malik said.

In Washington, Pakistan's ambassador to the United States said the attacks could be a chance to improve cooperation and ease "the burden of history" between the longtime South Asian rivals, who have fought three major wars since independence and conducted tit-for-tat nuclear weapons tests in 1998.

"It's important to avoid miscalculations. It's important not to ratchet up tensions. It is important to understand that this is an opportunity for India and Pakistan to work together," Ambassador Husain Haqqani told CNN's "Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer" on Sunday.

Police in Mumbai, located in Maharashtra state, on Monday revised downward the death toll from Wednesday's attacks and the sieges that followed to 179 dead and about 300 wounded.

At least 28 foreigners were among the victims, including six Americans and eight Israelis. Victims share their tales of survival and escape »

The official death toll does not include at least nine gunmen killed in three days of battles with police and the Indian military, police said Monday.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh accepted the resignation of Patil, the home minister, and immediately named Finance Minister P. Chidambaram to take over the post, according to a source in the prime minister's office.

Patil, whose ministry oversees internal security, had been accused of failing to improve intelligence before the attacks, said N. Ram, editor-in-chief of The Hindu, a major Indian newspaper.

"This man has been widely criticized for not being up to it and it was simply impossible that he could stay on after this," Ram said.

Indian officials allege that in the 1990s, Lashkar-e-Tayyiba was a state-sponsored terror group used by the Pakistani government to get control of the disputed northern Kashmir region. Pakistan banned the group in 2002, after an attack on India's parliament that brought the two countries to the brink of war.

The Indian government is considering suspending the five-year old cease-fire with Pakistan and perhaps even ending the dialogue process with the country, CNN-IBN reported.

Pakistani security officials also told CNN that if tensions with India escalate, it may shift its military forces from the Afghan border east to prepare for any conflict.

Pakistan's new democratic government, which took office earlier this year, is battling its own insurgency along the rugged border with Afghanistan, where U.S. and NATO troops have been fighting al Qaeda and Taliban militants since al Qaeda's 2001 attacks on New York and Washington.

Haqqani said the militants want India and Pakistan to remain "at each other's throats so they can flourish," but he said his government has seen no sign of an Indian buildup along the border.

"However, if there is any troop buildup on our eastern border, we will certainly have to take defensive positions. And, unfortunately, that may mean bringing troops from the western border," he said. "We don't want it. We know India doesn't want it. And we know that the international community doesn't want it."

U.S. President George Bush spoke to Singh on Sunday. Noting that U.S. citizens were among those killed, the president "said that we would all be working together, with the international community, to go after these extremists," according to a statement from National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was scheduled to arrive in India on Wednesday in the wake of the attacks, the White House said.

Rice was scheduled to depart Sunday night for an already scheduled trip to London, said Press Secretary Dana Perino in a statement. Rice will attend a NATO meeting on Tuesday before traveling to India, where she is expected to arrive in New Delhi on Wednesday.

Interpol had said it would send a delegation to India to aid in the investigation. But on Sunday, the international law enforcement agency was still waiting official permission into the country, a spokesman said.

The targets of the attacks included luxury hotels packed with foreign tourists. The 105-year-old Taj Mahal hotel was the site of the attackers' final stand, as gunmen held hostages and refused to leave the facility.

The chairman of the company that owns the hotel told CNN that the company had been warned about the possibility of a terrorist attack before the massacre.

The hotel heightened security as a result, the chairman of the Tata Group and Taj Hotels, Ratan Tata, said in a taped interview with Fareed Zakaria on CNN's "GPS." There were indications, though, that the hotel relaxed security before the attack.

"It's ironic that we did have such a warning and we did have some measures," Tata said. "People couldn't park their cars in the portico where you had to go through a metal detector."

"But if I look at what we had -- which all of us complained about -- it could not have stopped what took place. They didn't come through that entrance," he said. Watch the destruction left at the hotel »

"They came from somewhere in the back. They planned everything," he said of the attackers. "I believe the first thing they did, they shot a sniffer dog and his handler. They went through the kitchen, they knew what they were doing."


Mumbai attacks probed as India-Pakistan relations strained - CNN.com

[Asim Aquil]

It would be a good riddance to get rid of terrorist elements from our society. Who do these blind SOBs think we've been fighting for 8 years now? But obviously there should be some level of evidence which can be proven in a court of law.

[Anwar2]

The ISI chief was summoned to India, and our government agreed in less than 5 minutes. Our Foreign minister was on Indian soil, and was grilled by the media for 3 days. India considers Pakistan as another Bhutan. What next? do they expect our Army chief to report to GHQ in Delhi?

[Kharian_Beast]

One man's terrorist is another man's covert operative. Never forget that mates.

[MBI Munshi]

Rice says Pakistan must cooperate fully with India in terrorism investigation

By ANNE GEARAN AP Military Writer | AP

Dec 1, 2008

(LONDON) The United States has told Pakistan it expects nothing short of complete cooperation in investigations into the terrorist rampage in nuclear rival India. Pakistan's response will be a test of the will of the new civilian government, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Monday.

"What we are emphasizing to the Pakistani government is the need to follow the evidence wherever it leads," Rice said. "I don't want to jump to any conclusions myself on this, but I do think that this is a time for complete, absolute, total transparency and cooperation and that's what we expect."

At President George W. Bush's direction, Rice is cutting short a European trip to visit India later this week. Attacks spanning three days killed more than 170 people in the Indian commercial capital Mumbai, including six Americans.

Indian leaders pointed fingers at "elements in Pakistan" although it is not yet clear where the well-planned operation originated.

"We share the grief and the anger of the Indian people but of course Americans were also killed in this attack and they were killed deliberately because they were Americans," Rice said during a press conference aboard her plane en route to London. "That makes this of special interest and concern to the United States."

Attackers chose sites representing the city's wealth and tourism, and reportedly sought out Westerners as victims. Rice will see Indian leaders in New Delhi. She does not plan to go to Mumbai.

A previously unknown Muslim group called Deccan Mujahideen — a name suggesting origins inside India — has claimed responsibility for the attacks. But Indian officials said the lone surviving gunman, now in custody, told authorities he belonged to a Pakistani militant group with links to the divided Himalayan territory of Kashmir.

India has blamed "elements" from Pakistan for the 60-hour siege during which suspected Muslim militants hit 10 sites across Mumbai. Pakistan denied it was involved and demanded evidence.

India has repeatedly accused Pakistan of complicity in terrorist attacks on its soil, many of which it traces to militant groups fighting Indian rule in Kashmir. The U.S. has tried to persuade Pakistan to shift its security focus from India, with which it has fought three wars, to Islamic militants along the Afghan border.

The Mumbai assaults raised fears among U.S officials of renewed violence between India and Pakistan. Both nations possess nuclear arms.

Rice said Pakistan's U.S-backed civilian president, Asif Ali Zardari, has pledged to improve relations.

Zardari replaced President Pervez Musharraf earlier this year and has established polite but distanced relations with Washington. Musharraf was a military man and a Bush administration ally against terrorism, but that closeness cost him support at home.

"It's a difficult task for this new Pakistani government," Rice said, referring to the way Islamabad will respond to the attacks next door. "They know this is a time to step up to the task."

Rice spoke Sunday with President-elect Barack Obama, their third conversation about India in as many days.

Obama was expected to announce his pick to replace Rice as the top U.S diplomat later Monday. Democratic officials said Sunday that Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton would be named.

Rice is to go to India on Wednesday.

The White House announced Rice's trip Sunday hours after Bush assured India's leader the U.S. government will put it's full weight behind the investigation.

Rice: Pakistan must cooperate in terror probe | Newsweek News | Newsweek.com

[AgNoStIc MuSliM]

The United States has told Pakistan it expects nothing short of complete cooperation in investigations into the terrorist rampage in nuclear rival India.

That is what Pakistan has assured India of already.

[pkpatriotic]

Secretary Condoleezza Rice's Remarks:En Route London, to India.

Secretary Condoleezza Rice
En route London, England
November 30, 2008

SECRETARY RICE: Given the lateness of the hour, I’ll happily just take your questions. But obviously, I’m going to go first to London for consultations with the British. This was a previously planned trip on our way to the NATO ministerial, but obviously, given the events in India, and the relationship between Pakistan and India -- we and Britain have very close ties. We have maintained very close contact. We’ve cooperated very closely on issues concerning Pakistan, concerning India. And so I think this is fortuitous that I’m going to be in London for these discussions.

I’m then going on to the NATO ministerial. And as you now know, we will depart the NATO ministerial a little early and go to New Delhi. The President has asked me to do that to express our sympathies with and our solidarity with the Indian people, and to express our absolute determination to help in any way that we can to help end this terrorist threat and to bring those who perpetrated this horrible crime to justice, to – because I would just underscore that we share the grief and the anger of the Indian people, but of course, Americans were also killed in this attack and they were killed deliberately because they were Americans. And that makes this of special interest and concern to the United States.

QUESTION: Do you – when – one of the militants who was arrested after the bombing has said that he was trained in Pakistan and was part of one of the two main Pakistani Muslim militant groups. Do you believe the Pakistani Government when they say there was absolutely no Pakistani involvement at all?

SECRETARY RICE: Well, what we’re emphasizing to the Pakistani Government is the need to follow the evidence wherever it leads, and to do that in the most committed and firmest possible way. And I’ve spoken with President Zardari. I’ve spoken with Foreign Minister Mukherjee. Steve Hadley has spoken with his counterpart. And on all scores, the Pakistanis have emphasized their desire to get to the bottom of this and to help in any way that they can. And so I don’t want to jump to any conclusions myself on this, but I do think that this is a time for complete, absolute, total transparency and cooperation. And that’s what we expect.

QUESTION: In your discussions with the Pakistanis, have they assured you that they have played no role in this at all as far as they know? And you said that you were going to be, you know, working together with the Indians to prevent this kind of terrorism threat. How are you going to do that? Do you – are you going there with any specific ideas for the Indians?

SECRETARY RICE: Well, we’ve already had very good cooperation with India, and we have a number of U.S. Government agencies that are helping support in any way that we can the investigation. Obviously, information is the long pole in the tent when one deals with terrorist situations. But of course, we have been concerned about this for some time. The embassy bombing in Kabul was reason for concern. And so we will help and cooperate in any way that we can.

In terms of Pakistan, again, the Pakistani Government has said that it will be cooperating, it wants to cooperate, and that it’s prepared to follow the leads wherever they go. And that’s what we expect.

QUESTION: Do you think the Pakistani Government should send their head of intelligence in India as it was at first scheduled, and then abandoned?

SECRETARY RICE: Well, this is a decision for the Pakistani Government. But I do think that it is extremely important that there be the highest levels of cooperation between Pakistan and India at this point, and that means all institutions. And I assume that there is going to be law enforcement cooperation as well as intelligence cooperation in getting to the bottom of this.

QUESTION: Are you concerned that this could escalate Pakistan-India tensions to the point of actual conflict?

SECRETARY RICE: Well, I’d just note that the lines of communication are open between them; that when I speak with the Indians, they talk about the very good initial statements from the Pakistani Government. They have talked on the telephone. This is a different relationship than it was a number of years ago. Obviously, they share a common enemy, because extremists in any form are obviously a threat to the Pakistanis as well as to the Indians.

So this obviously is a difficult task for this new Pakistani Government. It’s still early in the civilian government’s existence. But in speaking with President Zardari and in speaking with the Foreign Minister, they know that this is a time to step up to the task that they’ve got.

QUESTION: Do you have any updates on the number of Americans killed, and do you have any more details on that? There were still people who were at risk.

SECRETARY RICE: Yes. And the latest that I have is what’s being reported. The number is six, I think, that was most recently reported. There are still unfortunately a bit of a – well, it’s no longer really a rescue operation, but an operation to identify and – but as far as I know, six. And the word that we’re getting is, to the best of our knowledge, all known Americans are accounted for at this point.

QUESTION: And do you think that this marks sort of a new era in terrorism in some ways because Americans were singled out, as were other foreigners? Are you afraid that this might escalate and that somehow, this was different from other attacks?

SECRETARY RICE: Well, clearly, Americans were targeted. Brits were targeted; foreigners were, in a sense, targeted by the very targets that they chose. But this terrorism threat has been very deep and growing for a long time. We’ve made a lot of progress against these organizations. But yes, I do think that this is an element that bears watching, and that gives us every more reason to make sure that we get to the bottom of it, and as quickly as possible. I think we should sit down --

MR. MCCORMACK: Okay, guys.

SECRETARY RICE: Okay.

QUESTION: Thank you very much. We really appreciate it.

2008/T30-1
Released on December 1, 2008

QUOTE:
She should discuss with Pakistani counterpart to have their point of view on such issue, in the way prior to visit India.

[Goodperson]

CNN video on Indo-Pak tension
Videos: Search for answers in Mumbai - CNN.com

[batmannow]

GEO Pakistan
US has no reason to doubt Pakistan: White House
Updated at: 2005 PST, Monday, December 01, 2008

WASHINGTON: The United States has no reason to doubt the Pakistani government's assertion that it was not involved in the recent deadly attacks in Mumbai, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said Monday.

many of our commrades, did posted the same artical, does it make any sense!

[batmannow]

Minister Quits Over Mumbai Intel Failures

December 01, 2008
Australian Associated Press

India's interior minister resigned on Sunday as anger grew over intelligence failures leading up to the devastating attacks on Mumbai and the government mulled suspending a peace process with Pakistan.

Home Minister Shivraj Patil said he took "moral responsibility" for the assault by heavily armed Islamic militants, which left at least 172 people dead and transformed parts of Mumbai into a war zone for three days.

India's powerful national security adviser MK Narayanan also submitted his resignation, officials said, but it was not clear if it had been accepted.

The Indian government has pointed the finger at "elements in Pakistan", and security sources say they believe most if not all the highly trained gunmen were Pakistani.

The future of the nuclear-armed neighbours' peace process now appears in doubt.

"There is a view in the government that India should suspend the peace process... to show that it is not going to take lightly the deadly carnage in Mumbai," official sources told the official Press Trust of India (PTI).

The government, "including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, is very upset as it feels that Pakistan has not kept its promise made at the highest level to end terrorism directed at India", PTI said.

Opening cross-party talks on Sunday, Singh said he intended to boost security, give more funds to anti-terrorism units and set up a federal agency of investigation.

"We have had terrorist attacks before ... but this attack was different. It was an attack by highly trained and well armed terrorists targeting our largest city," Singh said.

"They came with the explicit aim of killing large numbers of innocent civilians, including foreign visitors. They sought to destroy some of the best known symbols of our commercial capital."

Security officials said they believed the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Toiba was behind the extremely well planned assault, which took thousands of Indian commandos, police and soldiers 60 hours to stop.

Lashkar, which is fighting Indian control of the disputed Kashmir region, was behind a deadly 2001 assault on the Indian parliament that pushed New Delhi and Islamabad to the brink of war.

But Pakistan, which has fought two wars with India over Kashmir, moved quickly to deny any links with the attacks. Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari urged India not to "over-react".

Zardari warned that the militants were "looking for reaction" and pledged prompt action against anyone responsible.

Lashkar, which operated openly in Pakistan until it was outlawed after the September 11, 2001, attacks, has denied responsibility.

Around a dozen militants launched their assault on Wednesday evening when they split into groups and struck targets across Mumbai, including the main railway station and a hospital.

Security forces regained control of the city 60 hours later when they killed the last three gunmen holed up inside the Taj Mahal hotel.

On Friday elite troops had stormed a Jewish centre and killed two gunmen - but found eight dead Israeli hostages.

Another luxury hotel that was attacked, the Oberoi/Trident, was cleared of militants later in the day, with scores of trapped guests rescued and dozens of bodies found.

The overall toll was at least 172 people dead and nearly 293 wounded.

About 30 foreigners were killed including five Americans, two French, two Australians and two Canadians.

In a telephone call on Sunday, President George W Bush told Singh he had ordered US agencies to devote whatever resources were necessary to help hunt down those behind the attacks, White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said.

Some militants entered Mumbai by boat, while others had arrived a month ago to stockpile arms and explosives and infiltrate the targets.

They had enough ammunition to kill 5,000 people and never issued any demands for the hostages' release, officials said on Sunday.